Monday, 9 September 2013

Khan Baba (Auburn)

I've been spending more and more time at work recently (not by choice of course) and seeing very little of my family, so Mum suggested a family dinner on Saturday. Choosing something different with the family has certain restrictions, my Mother's tongue is impervious to tastes other than Curry, and my brother gets more annoying the further we drive.

A difficult conundrum, but whilst searching through the the internet I found something noteworthy. A favourite of mine Khan Baba (Auburn) had been taken over by the management of Desi Hut, this place met my two key requirements, it was close by and it was curry, problem solved.

We had made reservations beforehand for a 7 pm seating, but walking in it seemed slightly unnecessary as there were only two other tables occupied. I tried to envisage my previous visits to the restaurant, the only difference that I could make out was that the restaurant was slightly shinier and no lingering odours of curry, a good start.

Traditional Drums

Bangles stacked to make interesting light feature

Clean and polished, we were the first ones in

We were promptly seated, and given freshly laminated menu’s (always nice), and we begun to peer through the possibilities of the night. We had decided to choose one entree and three mains. The entree in an Indian restaurant is quite unnecessary but my brother had become incessant in his demands, so we folded and agreed. The waitress had come to us and taken our order and we waited for our culinary delights.

Lamb Cutlet $14.90

The sizzling hot plate came out to much anticipation. We detected the unmistakable aroma of Tandoori spices before we saw the dish. My brother greedily grabbed the first cutlet, but was greeted with disappointment. Karma strikes back. Chicken and Tandoori are a marriage made in heaven, Lamb and Tandoori as we blatantly found out, are not, not a mistake I'm going to make again. The quality of the meat though was good though, the meat was tender and tore off the bone without effort, some might find this unique taste appealing, but not me. We eagerly awaited our mains and hoped we fared better the remainder of the night.

Cheese Naan $2.90 per piece

Mango Chicken $14.90

Chicken Jalfrezi $14.90

Chicken Saag (Spinach) $14.90

After a dragged out twenty minutes our mains had arrived, we had ordered Saag Gosht (lamb with spinach), Butter Chicken (the measure of a good Indian restaurant), and Chicken Tikka Masala. If you had read the captions above, we received something different!

The first dish we ordered was the Butter chicken, having had Butter chicken the entirety of my life I know someone's trying to pull the wool over my eyes. So either I was completely wrong and it was a very poor Butter chicken or a very well made Mango chicken. I'm sure it was the later, it was a sweet but creamy sauce and the chicken was very tender. The biggest surprise though was the quantity of meat in the dish, Indian restaurants are notorious in skimping on the meat and filling with the sauce, but this dish was well balanced, as were the other dishes we had ordered that night.

The second dish was supposed to be a Chicken Tikka Masala, but we of course received the Chicken Jalfrezi, what gave it away was the capcicums, Tikka Masala does not contain even the smallest amounts. This although was of the highest quality, the meat, the sauce, perfect, a replica of Desi Hut in Lakemba, we were getting more and more grateful of the mix up.

Without fail of course the last and final dish, the Lamb Gosht, naturally turned out to be a Chicken Saag (spinach). There may be a small possibility that I was wrong about the other two (very little) but there was no way I could be confused between chicken and lamb. I had never had this dish with chicken but was happy I did, absolutely beautiful.

By the time we had finished, the restaurant was packed, and for good reason. The standard of the food had risen dramatically since being taken over. The order mix up turned out to be a blessing in disguise, we got to try some of the best curry I've had for a long while. The meat was tender and ample, the sauce was rich and creamy, and our only regret that night is that they hadn't mixed up the entree. A great night out with the family and a place I would love to visit again in the near future.